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VANCOUVER -- Four years have separated the release of French synthpop/new wave band Phoenix’s breakout album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix and its forthcoming fifth album Bankrupt!, which comes out April 23.

In the span of four years the band, which will celebrate its 15th anniversary next year, has gone from moderate following to mainstream appeal, with singles 1901 and Lisztomania becoming advertising jingles heard the world over (you’ve probably heard 1901 in about 25 different commercials).

But while Phoenix is not so much an unknown entity anymore, many were surprised when it was announced the band would headline major festivals like Coachella (performing in the event’s two Saturday night headlining spots on April 13 and 20 before its new album even drops) and Primavera Sound in Barcelona. The band will also appear on Saturday Night Live April 6.

Phoenix kicked off its warmup “road to Coachella” tour of the West Coast with a performance at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver Thursday night, and while the songs from Bankrupt! were mostly unknown to the audience (except for Asian-tinged single Entertainment, which dropped a few weeks ago), it remained to be seen if Phoenix could prove worthy of headlining some of the world’s biggest festivals.

Shrouded in mist, Phoenix would remain covered in smoke for most of their set, which helped augment the strobing lights used as the main stage effect.

“Once upon a time would take too long,” sang Mars, standing atop one of the monitors at the front of the stage while Hedlund hit the crap out of his skins.

Phoenix then gave the crowd -- the skinny jeans and straight-visor ball cap set that’s been a staple of indie shows for the past five years (lots of scarves and toques too) -- a little Lisztomania and Lasso.

It was a bit rough around the edges until the band found its groove with the bumpy Long Distance Call, from 2006’s Never Been The Same.

“Thank you so much,” Mars said with a thick French accent before Phoenix unveiled The Real Thing, a hazy, synth-heavy track from Bankrupt! that borrows the underlying beat from Prince’s When Doves Cry.

Judging by the reaction of the crowd, the track hit the mark, and no one dared sit down as the lighting became more intricate, static flaring up on the black curtain at the back of the stage, framed by strategically angled spotlights.

The real fireworks were in the frenetic guitars and synths of Girlfriend, which merged into hypnotic, bass-heavy new tune Chloroform, a track where Mars’s excellent vocals felt like they were oozing from the speakers. Creepy and cool.

“We had 1,000 dreams about tonight, we had 1,000 nightmares about tonight,” Mars said between songs. “You tell me what it’s going to be.”

It certainly wasn’t a nightmare, though despite the quality of the set a third of the way in one could still wonder if Phoenix was festival headliner material.

The feeling was somewhat dispelled when the band cranked the strobes to 11 for Love Like A Sunset halfway through the concert, and then getting loose on new track Trying To Be Cool, which featured a panning landscape photograph of Versailles in the background.

Live, the material from Bankrupt! felt much more psychedelic than previous work, and it remains to be heard how the album will really sound.

Until then, Phoenix seem festival-ready. They may need a few tweaks here and there, but skeptics are in for a surprise come mid-April.

That being said, the odds that Phoenix will allow the festival crowd to rush the stage the way it did in Vancouver during the encore are slim. (The phenomenon is becoming a bit of a habit here, as the same thing happened at Phoenix's performance at the Orpheum in January 2010.)

In the opening slot, indie darling and Pitchfork favourite Mac DeMarco did what he does best: Riding the fine line between slacker cool, slacker “sexy” and plain old slacker dumb.

The Edmontonian-turned-Vancouverite-turned-Montrealer (where to next, Mac?) drew a somewhat withdrawn response, with one fan promptly screaming, “Phoenix!” as DeMarco and his ratty, bratty rock ‘n’ roll bunch wrapped their set with the dirty croon of Together.

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Review: Phoenix dispel doubts at mini tour opener in Vancouver

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